[SOLVED] Very Basic Linux Mint

[Distro-Don]

I am trying to uninstall whatever I can and still end up with a very basic boot-able Linux Mint system.

So far I have deleted blueberry, bluez, bluez-obexd, caja, caja-extensions-common, caja-gksu, caja-open-terminal, caja-share, caja-sendto, caja-extensions-dbg, cowsay, gimp, gimp-data, keepass2, nano, pidgin, rhythmbox, rhythmbox-data, librhythmbox-core8 and yelp. What else can I delete and still have a boot-able Linux Mint System.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[lmuserx4849]

It depends on what your goal is.... I mean one does not need a web brower or mail client. Try xfce lm version rather than kde, cinnamon, mate.

My own experience is, I run KDE (not exactly light), but I have alternatives to KDE PIM's. So I list them, understand what they are, and remove them one at a time. If there are dependencies such that it takes away too much, I usually leave it. I use synaptic package manager (spm). If I were using apt, I'd do it in test mode first.

When I look at the details of a package in spm, there is line that says: "Priority: required". I don't know if it is enough to only have packages that are "required". To display from the command line: dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Package}\t${Priority}\n' | grep "required$". I think some things might be labeled "optional" because they don't necessarily apply to all, but it was determined your system/hardware needed them. I was looking through the list and saw vim and ed are "optional", nano is "important" (I noticed you removed nano) and I'm think'n how does one edit files from the command line, especially in a crisis situation.

From https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-polic ... priorities

Each package should have a priority value, which is included in the package's control record (see Priority, Section 5.6.6). This information is used by the Debian package management tools to separate high-priority packages from less-important packages.

The following priority levels are recognized by the Debian package management tools.

required: Packages which are necessary for the proper functioning of the system (usually, this means that dpkg functionality depends on these packages). Removing a required package may cause your system to become totally broken and you may not even be able to use dpkg to put things back ...

important: ...
standard: ...
optional: ...
extra: ...

Another option might be to start out with a light distribution, maybe lubuntu. I'm sure if you search LM's forums you'll find other suggestions, like this one.

[Flemur]

I am trying to uninstall whatever I can and still end up with a very basic boot-able Linux Mint system.

Goal is -? Disk space, boot time, something else?

Except for using slightly more disk space, I've made Mint as light as Arch with the same capabilities (GUI desktop, internet, etc), not so much by removing things as turning them off - and adding fluxbox.

[Distro-Don]

I just want to try to get this down to a very basic system. If anyone can tell me which files I can delete safely, That is what I want.

[jimallyn]

I just want to try to get this down to a very basic system. If anyone can tell me which files I can delete safely, That is what I want.

I don't know that anyone has prepared a list of what can be deleted. Some experimentation may be necessary.

[Distro-Don]

If I could get one or two files from each person, that would work.

[sphyrth]

I want to start which default Video Player I should have. Once, I only had Xplayer/Totem with VLC being optional. Now in Mint 18.x I don't even know why Rhythmbox got in the mix.

[lmuserx4849]

If I could get one or two files from each person, that would work.

We use the Linux Mint distribution so we don't have to know that information in detail
Otherwise we'd all be using linux from scratch.

Flemur response was to turn off apps. I'd be interested in knowing which desktop?

[jimallyn]

You could try Debian's minimal "netinstall." The download file for that is only 248 MB for 64 bit architecture.

https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/index.en.html

There are installation manuals for all versions of Debian here:

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

You're not likely to get much help here on what you can delete from Mint. Most of us like that it comes with all the normal applications we use, and I don't think anybody has given much thought to what can be removed. As far as I know, there has never been any discussion among the developers about doing a minimal version.

[Distro-Don]

I haven't tried a minimal version of any other Linux system because I like LMDE the best. I just want to get it as efficient as I can and still work the way I want it to.

So far I have deleted a total of 57 files plus all of the orphaned files caused by these deletions. The footprint is a lot smaller. I still have more files to look at so I will be deleting more as I go along. My system is running faster, It boots faster and I think it is safer because there are a lot less files to update. I will mark this as solved.

[jimallyn]

I hope you are keeping track of all of that, for two reasons: 1) in case it blows up on you, you know what you did, and can un-do it or not do it next time. 2) So you can post here what you did. I don't think I've ever seen anybody else wanting to do what you are doing, but should somebody come here in the future wanting to trim Mint down a bit, it would be good for them to have your input on the subject. It is alway appreciated when you post the solution to your questions.